Most of these folks were never going to seriously consider voting for a worthwhile bill in the first place. I’m glad they’ve now identified their excuse for inaction so we can stop including them in policy negotiations.

“It makes it hard to do anything because of the way this was handled,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Graham didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t have to — the fierce partisan fights during the past few weeks have torn away at the Senate’s clubby decorum, raising temperatures, fraying nerves and creating what one Democratic senator has called a “very high” level of distrust among members.

Graham’s words carry serious weight with supporters of climate change legislation because the South Carolina Republican has emerged as a leader on the issue in the Senate, working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a bipartisan bill.

Other potentially “gettable” Republican senators also sounded discouraging notes Monday.

“Right now, I would say that cap and trade is stalled,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

“Cap and trade has been delayed by the health care debate almost indefinitely,” said Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar. “The question will be how many more battles members of Congress want to take on in an election year.”

“I give it a very low chance,” said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a potential GOP target for bill supporters. “What it comes down to is our ability to work together as a body. And right now, the indicators are not very positive for climate change.”

Yet another supposedly moderate Republican comes out as a big no on clean energy legislation:

Lugar said he welcomed the opportunity to discuss global warming, but he emphasized that his constituents are more focused on the economy and did not see the bill authored by Kerry and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) as politically viable.

“I don’t see any climate bill on the table right now that I can support,” said Lugar, one of the half-dozen Republicans that Democrats are courting on the issue. “We really have to start from scratch again.”

I don’t think we’ll need Lugar to achieve cloture, so I seriously hope we don’t ’start from scratch again.’ If Lugar doesn’t support the extremely generous framework Kerry, Graham and Lieberman are developing, he won’t support anything. On this issue at least, Lugar is yet another moderate in name only.

Last night I mentioned the letter six Republican Ranking Committee Members had sent to EPW Chairman Boxer, basically demanding a slower timeline for the clean energy jobs bill.

Here is Senator Boxer’s response:

Think Progress:

Senate Republicans have endorsed Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK) plan to boycott the legislative markup of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733), scheduled to begin tomorrow. Inhofe’s GOP compatriots on the environment committee hope to block action by refusing to participate in the markup on the pretext that the Enviromental Protection Agency’s economic analysis of the bill is not “complete.” In a letter sent to committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), ranking member Inhofe and his counterparts on five other committees said any attempt to begin the markup before acceding to his demands “would severely damage” its chances for passage.

Download the letter here.

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Here is the national ad:

Arkansas:

Indiana: